A Note on the Date of London, British Library, Additional Manuscript 15233

A New Context for the Manuscript of <i>Wit and Science</i>

“…6 Now new evidence in the form of an exact match for the watermark which appears throughout Add MS 15233, in combination with an older but rarely noted observation concerning the binding, indicates that far from being completed over a period of several decades, the manuscript was entirely compiled and bound ca 1555. 7 The new dating of Add MS 15233 does not demand an extensive reanalysis of Wit and Science since there is little doubt that the extant version is a copy of a play originally written by Redford for the choir school at St Paul's. The new date, however, does alter the relationship between the play and the material surrounding it in manuscript, as well as contributing to our understanding of the contexts in which this play was used and adapted during the sixteenth century.…”